Fertilizer is an essential input of the agricultural production cycle. For years, CME Group has provided market participants a way to manage their fertilizer market risk, primarily through the use of swaps.

Continuing to strive for greater transparency and improved access to the fertilizer market, CME Group will now offer futures contracts for the most actively traded physical pricing points globally.

The six futures contracts and one cleared swap include:

• Urea US Gulf Futures
• Urea Egypt Futures
• Urea Brazil Futures
• DAP NOLA Futures
• MAP Brazil Futures
• Urea Middle East Futures
• UAN NOLA Swaps

The futures will be available to trade Sunday through Friday, almost 24 hours per day. They can be traded through the Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) on CME Globex or via block trades on CME ClearPort. The contracts will expire monthly and are financially settled through the CME Clearing.

The financial settlement, calculated by weekly assessments provided by leading fertilizer Price Reporting Agencies Profercy and ICIS, removes any risk from physical delivery and allows all market participants a stable and robust clearing mechanism that is largely free of counterparty risk.

Margin offsets will be available for those interested in trading or spreading different fertilizer products.

Futures and swaps can be efficient instruments for hedging physical exposure or for speculating on the fertilizer market. With CME Group’s suite of Fertilizer futures and swaps, market participants will now have new ways to manage their fertilizer risk across the globe.

CME Group offers a comprehensive suite of products that covers the most widely referred fertilizer price assessments.